Audrey and I now have my mum and dad living with us here at our house. We had the space, Mum and Dad were keen to spend more time with Zoe, so we went ahead and moved them in.

Mum and Dad are both still very able-bodied but a day might come when they won’t be.

I feel better knowing they’ll have support if that day does ever come and not have to worry about keeping up with their own household.

Zoe’s enjoying spending more time with her grandma and grandpa and I know Mum and Dad are thrilled too.

However, I think Zoe is way more excited to have Mum and Dad’s dog living with us now. We’d been wanting a dog anyway, so Buster was a nice little bonus, especially for Zoe!

We just have to watch her with him, as she can be a little bit too enthusiastic in expressing her affection for him!

Now that Mum and Dad are here, Audrey and I have reduced the nanny’s hours to three days a week.

Mum keeps insisting we can just get rid of the nanny entirely but if we did that, she would have no time to herself at all.

Zoe’s a really beautifully-behaved kid but she’s still a toddler. That alone means she can be demanding at times.

Mum lost her sister recently and I think looking after Zoe is taking her mind off that right now.

When her grief eases though, she’s going to want to start writing more again and without a nanny around sometimes, that’s going to be difficult.

Audrey likes to entertain, so as long as we’ve been here, our house has always been the default location for family get-togethers.

With my parents here too now, that’s even more true, if that was possible.

Not many weekends go by without either Charlie or Josie or both coming by with their families.

It’s a little much sometimes. I often end up playing video games with Troy, just to get a bit of a break from socialising.

You don’t really get a chance to catch up with anyone properly anyway, though I try.

But my parents love it, Audrey loves it and Zoe really loves seeing her cousins, so it’s not all bad.

I was always looking forward to becoming a dad but I’ve enjoyed it even more than I imagined I would.

I love the weekends even more intensely now, because I can spend more time with Zoe.

Audrey works from 5-11pm Thursday through Sunday, so the dinner and bed routine usually falls to me.

I can see a lot of Audrey in Zoe too but being adopted, it’s been pretty amazing having a little person around who looks and even acts like me.

No one in my family has ever treated me any differently for being adopted or not looking like anyone else, so it’s not something I ever missed. But having a little mini-me is a fun experience nonetheless.

When we had Zoe, everyone told us to enjoy every minute with her because it all goes by so fast. It sounds like a cliche but it really does.

Zoe is 18 months old now, walking and even talking a little. She seems to pick up new words every day.

Her latest word is “book”. Zoe cannot get enough of books! I hope that continues when she starts school.

Zoe had another milestone this month, when she had her first non-family play date. It was with Elisa Hamilton and it seemed to go well.

Elisa's dad was once roommates with Audrey’s brother and her mum is Audrey’s very distant cousin but we don’t know either of them too well.

Audrey was the one who set it up. She and Adrienne ran into each other in the waiting room at the doctor, and they decided to meet up again.

Elisa and Zoe had a lot of fun together though, so I guess we might be seeing Adrienne and Amar a bit more often.

Zoe loves playing with Oscar and Stella but it’s nice for her to have a little friend her own age too. We want to have her cousin Eliza over to play too, when she gets a little bit older.

Eventually, we want to give Zoe a baby brother or sister but we haven’t started trying just yet.

If Audrey got pregnant today, the baby would be born a few months after Zoe’s second birthday. That seems like slightly too small a gap for us.

My parents adopted me and then had Charlie six months later, so it would be doable but not necessarily ideal. It sounds like it was a bit nuts at times.

We both have siblings relatively close in age who we’re tight with though, so we don’t want to leave it too long. Right now, we’re looking at trying time it so that Zoe is about three when our next one is born.

Until then, we’re just going to make the most of our time with Zoe and dote on her as much as we can.

Notes:

Title is from Last Light by Matt Pond PA.

Sorry that this is so, so late! I wanted to get this out about two weeks ago but wasn't able to finish my session until yesterday. I won't bore you with the details, so let's just say the stars didn't really align until now!

I have been slacking even more on my posing blog but for those of you following that one, I promise I haven't abandoned it. I'm hoping to do a couple more boxes soon. :)

Jack and Audrey are on InTeen BC, so ACR was able to tell me that they're trying for a baby. I'll probably pop in and visit them some time next game year, so they may be expecting again before next round.

Adrienne and Audrey are actually first cousins, not distant cousins. Adrienne's dad and Audrey's mum are half-siblings. Owen and Tatiana's dad Galen had basically nothing to do with them growing up though, so Adrienne and Audrey never really knew each other as cousins.

Elisa and Zoe were pretty adorable together, right? I'm looking forward to aging up Eliza (man, I really did not think those names through!), which will be right after my next session. More play dates!

I didn't write about it, because it didn't occur to me until I was done playing but I'm considering having Jack quit his job. He's in Business right now but it's not something I feel suits him. I put him in that career because he happened to roll up the LTW to reach the top of it but these days, I don't pay as much attention to LTWs as I once did. I'm pondering if he should ditch the corporate world and take an active role in his dad's restaurant when he takes it over. He wouldn't cook but I can see him maybe serving as the host? I'll have to think about it some more but the more I think about it, the more I like the idea. :)

10 comments:

So funny about your names, I thought you misspelled them at first before I checked the heading again. I have a Myra and Amyra so I understand your pain. Hmm, I could see him doing something besides business. Maybe he could do the admin work for the restaurant, so still related but slightly. I guess in game wise he could be a host like you said. I could see him trying to convince his dad to go into new business product lines, like take aways or new menu items, and such.

Ha, nope. Eliza and Elisa were born just far enough apart for me to momentarily forget about the first one's name! They're not related, at least, so there's that!

I have always planned for Jack to take over the restaurant, though until now, I was going to hire a manager and have Jack be only behind the scenes. So in my head, he'd be doing all the paperwork and someone else would be doing the dirty work at the actual restaurant. I like the idea of him going into some kind of restaurant-related merchandising - might be a cool way to bring his two "worlds" together. And this family has enough money that he could buy another community lot and set up an actual store for whatever it might be as well. Hmmm...now you have me thinking!

I love the family gatherings! It's such fun to watch everyone interacting when one of my Sims hosts a family day. The play date looks like fun, too. It certainly was a good decision to move the parents in with the younger family!

Oh I love the idea of Jack going into this Dad's restaurant. I can see him being someone who values family and would put that above the corporate world, which doesn't really fit him as more than a way to make an income. Zoe is super adorable, and I'm excited for when she has a sibling, eventually. It makes sense that they wouldn't wait terribly long, seeing they are both really close with their siblings.

Their house is perfect for family hosting too, it's quite expansive, and with Audrey enjoying it, it makes sense. Whenever they all get together it reminds me of my childhood, every weekend at my Great Grandma Maisie's house. <3 I love that the cousins all get to know one another, and have those memories while the adults catch up and hang out.

Jack's boss right now is kind of an asshole (you've seen him in Lila's updates), so I can see Jack thinking this might be a good time to move on from a job which has never really been quite right for him anyway. So I think I will do this, possibly before their next update.

I think Audrey would have ended up pregnant this session had I taken her and Jack off BC. I'm making them wait just a little longer though. :)

Glad you enjoy the family gatherings too! I always like spotting what other sims are doing in the background - I don't always see it while I'm playing! This house is pretty amazing, it's true, but I'm thinking they will probably have to move if they want more kids after the next one. It's not the most efficient layout and there's only one spare bedroom right now, even though it looks like there should be room for way more.

Me too, that sounds great for Jack, restaurant-related merchandising, and sounds really fun to set up for, and read about. I remember how excited you were about the possibility of Jack having a child that looked like him or took after him, that's so great that Zoe is. Fun milestones, first words, first play date.

Ha, I have a hard enough time keeping my sims' names straight when they aren't even close. I wrote Ewan so many times when I meant Fearghus!

I still have to think some more about this merchandising thing. I have some ideas but I'm not really sure about them yet.

Yeah, Jack has unique genes in this hood, so I wanted to see them passed down. I would have been happier with red hair too (between Audrey and Jack, there are three red hair genes and one black...and look what Zoe ends up with!) but I'm happy Zoe resembles her dad so much facially, at least.

Ha, I mix up Finn and Declan a lot when I'm typing, as well as a few other pairs of sims, usually either siblings or parent/child. We'll see how I go with Elisa and Eliza!

Ha ha, I think everyone probably has one of those name things in their hood. In mine I have Stephanie who's dad is Jeremy and she married Jeremiah (yet another advantage to their impending divorce, I can rid myself of the Jeremy/Jeremiah problem in their family, lol!).

I could totally see Jack becoming involved in the family business, or something related to it. His background in corporate business would give him an entrepreneurial edge.

Ha ha, good luck trying to get a redhead out of those odds, lol! But Zoe is gorgeous with Jack's features and Audrey's coloring. I'm eager to see them have a second, even though they want to wait a little bit. ;)

I guess when you get past 100 sims or so (which I passed a long time ago!), similar names are probably going to happen! It'd be nice if mine weren't born months apart but oh well!

I'm glad everyone thinks Jack's new direction might suit him. Business never really did. :\ I've never been totally happy with it and now that I'm thinking about it, I don't think he would have been either. I'll have to deal with that next round. :)

I'm still a little bitter about not getting a redhead - it seemed like almost a sure thing! When Zoe was born, I'd just been screwed over with Malcolm and Hope too, where Malcolm ruined everything with his stupid black hair, lol! I am happy with Zoe though (and Mason)...but I would love a redhead next time around. ;)